The Stargazer's SisterFrom the acclaimed author of The Last First Day, here is a beautiful new period novel: a nineteenth-century story of female empowerment before its time, based on the life of Caroline Herschel, sister of the great composer and astronomer William Herschel and an astronomer in her own right. This exquisitely imagined novel opens as William rescues Caroline from a life of drudgery in Germany and brings her to England and a world of music making and stargazing. Lina, as Caroline is known, serves as William's assistant and the captain of his exhilaratingly busy household. William is generous, wise, and charismatic, an obsessive genius whom Lina adores and serves with the fervency of a beloved wife. When William suddenly announces that he will be married, Lina watches her world collapse. With her characteristically elegant prose, Carrie Brown creates from history a compelling story that interweaves familial collaboration and conflict with a haunting exploration of the sublime beauty of astronomy and our small but essential place within a vast and astonishing cosmos. Through Lina's trials and successes we witness the dawning of an early feminist consciousness--a woman struggling to find her own place among the stars. |
Contents
ONE Victory | 13 |
Two Moon | 32 |
THREE Night | 42 |
FOUR Friend | 55 |
FIVE Mystery | 62 |
SIX Storm | 79 |
SEVEN Solitude | 95 |
EIGHT Seeing | 109 |
TEN Winter | 148 |
ELEVEN Shadow | 160 |
TWELVE Planet | 180 |
THIRTEEN Observatory House | 200 |
FOURTEEN Hooked | 233 |
SEVENTEEN Star | 289 |
EIGHTEEN Dark | 304 |
Acknowledgments | 325 |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon animalcules asks astronomer baby Bath beautiful beside brother Caroline Caroline Herschel chair cheek child cold comets courtyard dark door dress England everything eyes face falls Farinelli father feels feet fingers fire Foot Guards forty-foot garden gateleg table gaze hair hand Hanover happy harpsichord head Hellevoetsluis Henry Spencer Herschel Hilda holds horse imagine inside Jacob kitchen laughing laundry leave legs letters liam light Lina knows Lina looks Lina says Lina thinks Lina's Lisbon Margaretta Mary Mary Pitt meadow mirror moon morning mother move never numbers Observatory House orchard perhaps planets puts realizes remembers river shoulder Silva singing sits sleep smell smiling sometimes speaks stairs stands Stanley stares stars street telescope tells touch turns understand voice walk wall watches William Herschel William says window Windsor Castle workshop writes